In its magnificent setting at the Basque Coast, the Roxy Jam Biarritz has become a major meeting-place in the world of women’s surfing, as well as being an authentic cultural and musical festival and will be going down from 10th to 14th July this year.

surf
The world’s elite is coming to France to compete for the ASP Ladies’ Longboard World Championship. 32 professional women surfers, 16 of which have pre-qualified due to their 2008 classifications, specialists in noseriding from the four corners of the globe, will fight for the title.

art
The Roxy Jam Biarritz is also an art exhibition and a place of artistic exchange that is open to the public; this year’s theme will be photography. Image artists, sharing a love of the ocean, surfing and its personalities, as well as its fragility and dangers, will offer summer visitors their unique view in exhibitions entitled:
*Underwater by Jeff Hornbaker, past-master in the art of capturing the magic of the ocean and its sirens.
*Soul Surfers by Takis Bibelas (see picture), a surfer/photographer of Green extract, raised in Canada, who has contributed to several prestigious magazines (Vogue Hommes, Vanity Fair, Marie Claire Italie, GQ…) and who has fallen in love with the Basque Country…
*Le Cercle de l’Eau by Lorène Carpentier (who is featured in the upcoming issue of Cooler), an exclusively photographic exhibition, centred on water
*Popurri by the major names in surfing photography, such as Sylvain Cazenave, Eric Chauché or even the young collective Aquashot.
*Portraits: a gallery of real individuals, interspersed with poetry by the now famous duo of Stéphanie Solinas (photographer) and Carole Bielicki (painter).
*Polluant Pollué by Florence Deyrou on a topic that is dear to the hearts of surfers and nature-lovers in general.

Alongside this exhibition, the public will be able to attend a number of fun and artistic workshops.

music
Since its creation, the Roxy Jam Biarritz has been faultless in its musical programming. The key to the event, the music is carefully and eclectically selected so that, each summer, there is an attractive set of young groups and female artists of international renown, with live shows organised all over Biarritz and throughout the event. Headlining at this years event is alternative electro rock musician, songwriter and producer Santigold.

and also…
The Roxy Athletix Race, an endurance race with the Roxy girls acting as coaches. The showing of the new surfing film, Dear & Yonder, which magically retraces the history of ladies’ surfing and its charismatic figures (also featured in the upcoming issue of Cooler)